Gotham!
| Gotham! | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Radio 4 | ||||
| Released | February 5, 2002 | |||
| Recorded | July 21, 2001 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 49:26 | |||
| Label | City Slang, Gern Blandsten | |||
| Producer | The DFA (James Murphy, Tim Goldsworthy) | |||
| Radio 4 chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 74/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Alternative Press | |
| Blender |  |
| Drowned in Sound | 6/10 |
| Pitchfork Media | 6.1/10 |
| Playlouder | |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Stylus Magazine | B |
| Uncut | |
Gotham! is the second album by the dance-punk/post-punk revival band Radio 4
Released in 2002, Gotham! became mildly famous in underground club and dance scenes through the release of the single Dance to the Underground. In a similar way to their 2000 debut, The New Song & Dance, Gotham! was a critical success but not a strong commercial success. However, with their new angrier and more raw sound, the band escaped from critics that stated that Radio 4 were a carbon copy of The Clash. Lyrically, the album has a large amount of strong political content, commenting on such things as the NYPD and differences in social class.
Gotham! received positive reviews from music critics who saw it as an improvement from their debut album The New Song & Dance, praising the post-punk production and politically minded lyrics. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 74, based on 14 reviews.
Peter J. D'Angelo of AllMusic praised the album for its production and lyrics, comparing them positively to The Clash, Mission of Burma and Gang of Four, saying that "Half dance party, half political rally, Gotham! is a rock record for a new era." Leslie Gilotti of Playlouder praised the band for crafting songs that straddle the line between fun dance-punk and political topics surrounding Post-9/11 New York, concluding that "The right-on politics will definitely appeal to lefty sloganeering students, but Radio 4 never get tedious. 'Gotham!' is an infinitely danceable and certainly insightful record that gets better with each listen, on every frequency." Brad Cohan of PopMatters praised the production of Goldsworthy and Murphy for deviating away from the debut album's sound to make it more hook-heavy and body moving, saying that, "Unlike The Rapture and Liars, who share in the movement philosophy but utilize a more angular and anarchic pose, Radio 4’s Gotham! is a near-perfect hybrid of perpetual rhythm, flow and hooks."
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